Home insurance policies will need to be revisited if the home has been altered in any way to accommodate a home office environment.
Property insurance platform Ceta Insurance has urged brokers to check in with their clients to make sure their insurance policies cover them if they are working from home.
Ceta pointed Office of National Statistics (ONS) data that showed, the number of people working from home increased from 27% in 2019 to 37% in 2021.
Additionally, YouGov found that the majority (57%) of workers said they would prefer to continue to work from home either full-time or at least some of the time.
While, for most people, working from home is unlikely to impact home insurance, Ceta Insurance has urged brokers to check in with their clients to make sure they are covered in case of exceptions.
One of the biggest areas of contention is conversion, extensions and renovations.
Home insurance policies will need to be revisited if the home has been altered in any way to accommodate a home office environment.
Research from Rated People found that, while most have set up an office in the lounge (21%) or their bedroom (15%), 7% have converted either the garage, a summer house or a shed, while 3% built a dedicated office in the garden.
James O’Hara, commercial director at Ceta Insurance, said: “According to the ABI, if you are an office-based worker that is continuing to work from home in at least some capacity, ‘it will remain the case’ that you don’t need to contact your insurer, but there are a number of exceptions.
“For example, if you have visitors to your home on business matters, you make, sell or store goods from home, offer services from your home i.e. beauty treatments, hairdressing, child minding, or have started running a business from home during the pandemic.
“While it is great news that most home working will be covered by a standard home insurance policy, there is a danger that because most circumstances are covered, those whose aren’t will just assume they don’t need to worry, and this could leave millions of homes at risk.
“There is, therefore, a huge opportunity for brokers to get in touch with their clients to check on their home working situations.
"If they discover that their client has created a new office space, that they are now offering services from their home or having clients or customers to visit, they can then really show their value by helping them find competitive cover for their new, home working circumstances and keep closer to their clients for any upcoming moves or remortgaging.”
